Healthier Green Goddess Salad: The Viral One Scores 70, Ours Scores 95

Green goddess dressing is a hundred years old. It was invented at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco in 1923, when executive chef Philip Roemer built a herb-heavy sauce to honor the actor George Arliss and his hit play of the same name. For most of the century after that, it was a mayonnaise-and-anchovy dressing you poured over lettuce.

Then Melissa Ben-Ishay, the founder of Baked by Melissa, blended one out of basil, spinach, cashews and nutritional yeast, poured it over a bowl of finely chopped cabbage, and posted the chopping sounds to TikTok. Her version is what people mean now when they say green goddess salad, and it is on more feeds than the original ever reached.

So we ran it through Eat Well Planner's Nutrition Score — the same at-a-glance number that appears on any public recipe page — expecting the usual story. It came back 70 out of 100. That is a genuinely good score, and it makes this the rare post in this series where the honest headline is the viral health food actually is one. For comparison, the three viral cucumber salads we scored came in at 50, 44 and 53. But 70 is not 95, and the gap turns out to be two specific, fixable things. Here is what they are and what each one is worth.

The original: what is in it and how it scores

The salad is a small head of green cabbage, a large cucumber, a quarter cup of chives and the white and light green parts of a bunch of scallions, all chopped fine. The dressing is blended: a cup of basil, a cup of spinach, two cloves of garlic, a small shallot, the juice of two lemons, 1/4 cup olive oil, 1/4 cup raw cashews, 1/3 cup nutritional yeast, 2 tablespoons rice vinegar, the dark green scallion tops, and 1 teaspoon of salt.

A note on servings, because every number below depends on it: we scored this as 4 servings. The finished bowl is about 1.6 kg of vegetables, and four portions is a generous lunch-sized bowl rather than a token side. That framing matters, because the central question about this salad is whether it can be lunch.

Per serving, the original comes to 280 calories, 6.5 g protein, 23.8 g carbs, 7.5 g fiber, 18.7 g fat (3.1 g saturated), zero added sugar and 630 mg of sodium.

What is already excellent

Almost all of it. This salad is an excellent source of vitamin K (207% of the Daily Value per serving), vitamin C (102%), folate (61%), thiamine (61%), vitamin B6 (36%), riboflavin (27%) and fiber (25%), and a good source of magnesium, iron, niacin, zinc, vitamin A and vitamin E on top of that. It scores 73 for gut health and 76 for brain health before a single change. It carries 6.75 plant points — nearly a quarter of a week's 30-plant target from one bowl — and it is naturally vegan and gluten-free without trying to be.

Nothing here is a compromise ingredient. There is no mayonnaise, no sugar, no ultra-processed anything. If you were hoping we would find a hidden villain, there isn't one.

What actually holds it back

Two things, and only two.

• The salt. One teaspoon in the dressing works out to 630 mg of sodium per serving — 27% of a day's Daily Value from a bowl of raw vegetables. This is the score's only caution flag, and it is the single reason the number is 70 instead of 90.
• There is barely any protein. 6.5 g per serving. That is the difference between a salad you eat and a salad you eat and then go looking for something else.

The protein problem is really a structural one, and it shows up clearly when you score the parts separately. We ran the chopped vegetables alone and the dressing alone. The vegetables come to 75 calories a serving and score 97. The dressing comes to 205 calories a serving and scores 67. In other words, roughly three-quarters of what you are eating, calorie-wise, is the dressing — and the thing everyone celebrates, the enormous pile of cabbage, is nutritionally close to free.

That is not a criticism of the dressing. It is a very good dressing, and the olive oil and cashews in it are doing useful work. It just means this is a bowl of vegetables and sauce, which is a side dish, presented in a format that looks like lunch.

One smaller flag worth knowing about: the score marks vitamin B12 as low, despite the third of a cup of nutritional yeast. That is correct, and it surprises people. Harvard's summary is blunt about it — yeast does not naturally contain B12, and it is only present if the brand has fortified it. Many do, some do not. Check your label.

The upgrades

Three changes, scored cumulatively in this order. The first one is worth more than the other two combined, and it is the easiest thing on this list.

1. Cut the salt in half and let the lemon do the work

• Swap: 1 teaspoon salt in the dressing → 1/2 teaspoon
• Score impact: +20 points (70 → 90)
• What it changes: Sodium from 630 mg to 340 mg per serving, which clears the recipe's only caution flag. Gut health 73 → 97, heart health 61 → 89, longevity 73 → 93
• What it costs you: Honestly, some seasoning. It will taste flatter straight out of the blender. Read the next paragraph before you decide

Twenty points from removing half a teaspoon of salt is the most dramatic single result we have gotten in this series, and it happens because the salad is otherwise so clean that sodium is the only thing the score has to object to. Most Americans already eat about 3,400 mg of sodium a day against a recommended ceiling of 2,300 mg, so 630 mg for a bowl of cabbage is a poor trade — especially when the fix is free.

Here is why it costs less flavor than you would expect. This dressing already contains the juice of two lemons and 2 tablespoons of rice vinegar, and acid is the other lever for making food taste finished. As America's Test Kitchen puts it, salt intensifies the flavor that is already there while acid balances it — and as little as 1/8 teaspoon of acid can brighten a dish. Blend the dressing with the half teaspoon, taste it on a piece of cabbage, and if it reads flat, add lemon juice before you reach for the salt. (Our lemon juice guide covers what to use if you are out.) If it still needs salt after that, add a pinch at the table, where it hits your tongue directly and you need less of it.

2. Add three cups of edamame

• Swap: Add 3 cups (450 g) shelled cooked edamame to the chopped salad
• Score impact: +5 points (90 → 95)
• What it changes: Protein from 6.5 g to 19.1 g per serving, fiber from 7.5 g to 12.9 g, plant points from 6.75 to 7.75
• What it costs you: About 120 calories a serving, and four minutes if the edamame is frozen. Nothing in flavor — it is mild, cold and faintly sweet, and it disappears into the dressing

This is the change that turns the dish from a side into a meal, and edamame is close to the perfect candidate because it is the rare protein that brings fiber with it rather than displacing it. Prepared frozen edamame carries 11.9 g of protein and 5.2 g of fiber per 100 g, along with 311 mcg of folate. Texturally it belongs here too: firm little beads that roll around in the chopped cabbage instead of sitting on top of it.

Why only +5 when it triples the protein? Because the salt fix already took the score to 90, and there is not much room left above that. This is worth saying plainly — the exact same addition applied to the original salad, salt and all, scores 85, which makes it worth 15 points there. Order changes what a swap appears to be worth, which is exactly why we score changes in sequence rather than adding up isolated numbers.

If you want more protein than this, chicken is the obvious move: 400 g (about 14 oz) of chicken breast on the salt-cut base scored 93 and pushed protein to 29 g per serving. Two points lower than edamame, nearly ten grams more protein, and no longer vegan. Pick whichever trade you prefer — both are good answers.

3. Cherry tomatoes and radishes (worth zero points, and worth doing)

• Swap: Add 1 1/4 cups (200 g) halved cherry tomatoes and 6 thinly sliced radishes (80 g)
• Score impact: +0 points (95 → 95)
• What it changes: Plant points from 7.75 to 9.75, fiber from 12.9 g to 13.8 g, potassium to 1,470 mg per serving
• What it costs you: Two minutes of chopping, and the salad is no longer entirely green

We are including a swap that moves the score by nothing, because this is where the score stops being the whole story. At 95 the number has essentially nowhere left to go, but plant diversity is tracked separately for a reason: the American Gut Project found that people eating more than 30 different plant types a week had measurably different gut microbial communities than people eating 10 or fewer, including more of the short-chain fatty acid producers. Notably, the same study found that diet labels like vegan or omnivore explained far less than the raw count of plants did.

Two ingredients, thirty seconds of work, and one bowl now covers nearly a third of a week's plant target. The score says nothing changed. It changed.

What we kept (on purpose)

The olive oil, all quarter cup of it. This is the swap everybody expects us to make, so we tested it: halving the olive oil to 2 tablespoons scored 71, up one point from 70. One point, in exchange for a dressing that no longer coats the cabbage properly and a meaningful loss of the fat that helps you absorb the vitamins K, E and A this salad is full of. Keep the oil. (If you need a different one, the olive oil substitutes guide covers what works cold.)

The cashews and the nutritional yeast. These are the two ingredients doing the impossible job — making a dairy-free dressing taste creamy and savory. Removing either one breaks the dish, and neither is what the score is objecting to.

Where we stopped. At 95, with the cabbage-to-everything-else ratio still recognizably Melissa's. We did not turn it into a grain bowl, and we did not add avocado, which scores well but starts turning a crunchy chopped salad into a creamy one.

The healthier version: full recipe

Nutrition Score: 95 out of 100. Serves 4.

For the salad

• 1 small head green cabbage (about 1 1/2 lb / 700 g), finely chopped
• 1 large English cucumber (about 10 oz / 300 g), finely chopped
• 3 cups (450 g) shelled edamame, cooked and cooled
• 1 1/4 cups (200 g) cherry tomatoes, halved
• 6 radishes (80 g), thinly sliced
• 1/4 cup (12 g) chives, minced
• 1 bunch scallions (100 g) — white and light green parts chopped for the salad, dark green tops reserved for the dressing

For the dressing

• 1 cup (24 g) fresh basil leaves
• 1 cup (30 g) fresh spinach
• 1/4 cup (35 g) raw unsalted cashews
• 1/3 cup (20 g) nutritional yeast (check the label for added B12)
• Juice of 2 lemons (about 6 tablespoons)
• 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
• 1/4 cup (54 g) olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 small shallot (25 g)
• 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
• The reserved dark green scallion tops

1. If the edamame is frozen, boil it for 4 to 5 minutes, drain, and rinse under cold water until fully cool. Pat dry so it does not water down the dressing.
2. Chop the cabbage, cucumber, chives and the white and light green parts of the scallions as finely as you have patience for, and pile them into a large bowl. The fineness is the whole texture of this salad.
3. Add the edamame, cherry tomatoes and radishes to the bowl.
4. Put every dressing ingredient into a high-powered blender and blend until completely smooth, 45 to 60 seconds. It should be pourable; add a tablespoon of water at a time if it is too thick.
5. Taste the dressing on a piece of raw cabbage rather than off the spoon. If it reads flat, add lemon juice a teaspoon at a time before adding any more salt.
6. Pour the dressing over the salad and mix thoroughly until every piece is coated.
7. Serve immediately. It keeps for a day in the fridge but the cabbage softens, so dress only what you plan to eat if you are making it ahead.

Per serving, original vs. improved:

• Nutrition Score: 70 → 95
• Calories: 280 → 416
• Protein: 6.5 g → 19.7 g
• Fiber: 7.5 g → 13.8 g (49% of the Daily Value)
• Sodium: 630 mg → 350 mg
• Saturated fat: 3.1 g → 3.9 g
• Potassium: 770 mg → 1,470 mg
• Plant points: 6.75 → 9.75
• Gut health: 73 → 100; heart health 61 → 93; longevity 73 → 98

The improved version is an excellent source of vitamin K (239% DV), folate (149%), vitamin C (127%), thiamine (77%), biotin (52%), vitamin B6 (52%), phosphorus (51%), iron (51%) and riboflavin (51%). It carries no caution flags. Its fiber alone covers roughly half a day against the 25 to 35 g most of us should be eating and mostly are not.

Swaps we tested and skipped

• Crumbled feta (150 g): 63, down 7 points. The intuitive move for a salad that needs protein, and the worst thing we did to this recipe. It pushed sodium to 46% DV and saturated fat to 34% DV, adding two caution flags to replace the one we were trying to remove. If you want the salty tang, our feta substitutes guide has lower-sodium options.
• Canned chickpeas straight from the can (480 g): 70, no change at all. The fiber gain was real (7.5 g to 12.8 g) and the can's sodium cancelled it out exactly, pushing the flag to 42% DV. Cooked or well-rinsed chickpeas on the salt-cut base scored 93 — fine, just two points behind edamame with about 75 more calories a serving.
• Chicken and edamame together: 87, down 8 from the edamame version. Doubling up on protein overshot. Pick one.
• Hemp seeds sprinkled on top: 93, down 2 from the equivalent edamame build. They add a plant point, but 40 g of hemp on top of a quarter cup of olive oil tipped the omega-6 balance far enough that the score flagged it.
• Halving the olive oil: 71, up 1. Covered above. Not worth the dressing.

Make it fit other diets

The good news is that this recipe starts out further along than most. It is already vegan and already gluten-free, with no substitutions required — the creaminess comes from cashews and the savory depth from nutritional yeast, not dairy.

• Nut-free: swap the cashews for raw sunflower seeds, 1:1. Slightly earthier, and it still blends smooth.
• Higher protein / not vegan: use 400 g of grilled chicken breast in place of the edamame for 29 g of protein per serving (scored 93).
• Lower calorie: keep the edamame and drop the oil to 3 tablespoons rather than 2 — you lose about 30 calories a serving without wrecking the coating.

For anything more involved, Eat Well Planner's Recipe Variations will rewrite the whole recipe for a given restriction in one step, and the AI recipe chat will answer substitution questions with the full ingredient list already in context.

Do this to any recipe you love

Nothing in this post required guessing. We imported the recipe, read its score, opened the Recipe Playground to change one ingredient at a time, and watched the number move — which is how we found out that half a teaspoon of salt was worth four times as much as the protein everyone talks about, and that halving the olive oil was worth almost nothing at all.

That is the whole loop, and it works on anything: import a recipe from a URL, an Instagram reel or a YouTube video, check the Nutrition Score, then hit Make It Healthier. The app proposes swaps and a calculator verifies the actual nutritional gain before you ever see the suggestion — so you find out which changes are worth making, and which ones are just things people say. It is free to try.

And when a recipe you love scores well already, the app will tell you that too. Some of them just do.